Culture

DENVER – Colorado and Washington state have both legalized the use and possession of small amounts of marijuana -- but while a majority of voters supported the change at the polls last year, there is currently no outright legal way to buy non-medical marijuana.

That's because the stores that reefer advocates hope will be the next big thing for the free-smoking movement could be shut out in many communities.

In Colorado, an option was built into constitutional Amendment 64 -- which technically legalized the drug -- for cities and towns to opt out.

So far, at least 51 municipal councils have voted to prohibit marijuana-selling stores. And more than 20 have enacted some kind of moratorium to buy more time, according to the Colorado Municipal League (CML) which is keeping tabs on which way towns are going.

Colorado Springs is the state's second-largest city and has medical marijuana, but the city council recently voted 5-4 to opt out of allowing retail stores as well as facilities for cultivation, manufacturing or testing. Don Knight, a councilman who voted with the majority, explained that potential tax revenue was not enough to justify other likely losses. "The input of $3.9 million that recreational marijuana would have given us, compared to the loss of tens of millions dollars, in either military or tourism, just didn't provide a balance sheet to me," he said.

Stoner Ladies listen up. Marijuana and Weight Loss are now being put together in the same sentence! So go ahead ladies, take another hit off that beautiful bong!

A new research study on marijuana reports that regular use of marijuana consumption may in fact be a contributer in weight loss. This conclusion comes from a report published in the American Journal of Medicine. This is great news to all of us Stoner Men and Women out here in the cannabis community.

The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Nebraska, Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, examined 4,657 adults, 579 of whom regularly smoked reefer.

“We found significant associations between marijuana use and smaller waist circumferences,” the researchers report.

A significant amount of potheads had 16% lower levels of insulin than the non-smokers in the study. Awesome news, you got to love to hear this stoners. Thumbs up!

The hormone Insulin, regulates metabolism of fat and carbs. Maybe that’s why smokers of the miracle plant marijuana are less prone to diabetes. Good thing because I’m sure none of us cannabis users want to develop diabetes.

Well I may not be a doctor folks but all signs point to continuing to smoke the reefer goodness. Stoners pack up those bowls and make sure they’re filled to the top with that good kush. Smoke weed, be happy, and Stay Blazed!

Want to be in the legal pot industry in Colorado? Open your checkbook.

Colorado's pot regulators opened three days of hearings Tuesday to lay out licensing specifics before retail sales begin in January.

The proposed rules require would-be "ganjapreneurs" to pay up to $5,000 just to apply to be in the recreational pot business. Operational licenses cost another $2,750 to $14,000.

Successful applicants must also pass a gauntlet of criminal background checks and residency requirements.

The result is expected to be an industry that will have as much red tape as green leaves. Colorado is trying to show it can strictly regulate and control a drug that has been operating in the shadows for decades, despite the advent of medical marijuana more than a decade ago.

Colorado will also be screening future marijuana businesses to make sure no owners live out of state, a requirement set forth by state lawmakers earlier this year. The residency requirements — which apply from owners all the way down to so-called "bud-tenders" who man the counters and measure out marijuana — are a holdover from Colorado's existing medical marijuana industry.

The hefty operational license fees, according to state officials, are needed to pay for enforcement of the nascent industry. Plans call for an ambitious seed-to-sale tracking system in which Colorado will require video surveillance of all plants as they grow and are prepared, packaged and sold to customers.

I think we all have that friend that tries to hold in his/her hit of marijuana as long as they possibly can in an attempt to get higher. They swear that if you hold in your hit of marijuana longer, it will make you higher. I have always gone back and forth in regards to which side of the equation I fell into – whether or not I believed holding in my hit of marijuana longer would get me higher. I have many memories of smoking marijuana, hanging out with friends growing up, and watching my friends try to hold in their hit as long as they could. I even witnessed a couple of friends pass out because they held in their hit so long. Luckily, none of them were ever hurt.

We always debated whether or not holding in a hit of marijuana longer would make you higher growing up, and we didn’t have the internet to research things. Everyone’s arguments were usually based upon ‘a guy they heard it from’ which is not exactly a good source. These days we have the internet to shed more light on the subject. I found some

According to Steve Liebke’s 2001 ‘A Cannabis User’s Harm Reduction Handbook,’ “Take small, shallow tokes or pulls. About 95% of THC in cannabis smoke is absorbed in the first few seconds so breath holding is quite pointless. All it really achieves is a far greater amount of tar being deposited in the lungs.”

The excerpt from Steve Liebke’s book didn’t have citation itself, so take that information for what you will. It seems much more reliable of a source than ‘some guy I heard it from’ though. What do readers think? Do you hold in your hit of marijuana longer because you think it makes you higher? Or do you think that it doesn’t matter? I invite others to post links in the comments to other research if they have something good to share! I would like to see a study done about the difference between smoking dabs versus smoking flower, and how holding it in is different (if at all). Because I know when I hold in dab hits, that shiz has some bite!

SEATTLE — A few things will be different at this year's Hempfest, the 22-year-old summer "protestival" on Seattle's waterfront where tens of thousands of revelers gather to use dope openly, listen to music and gaze at the Olympic Mountains in the distance.

The haze of pot smoke might smell a little more like victory, after Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize marijuana use by adults over 21. Having won at the state level, speakers will concentrate on the reform of federal marijuana laws.

Oh, and the Seattle police — who have long turned a lenient eye on Hempfest tokers — don't plan to be writing tickets or making arrests. They'll be busy handing out Doritos.

"I think it's going to be a lot of fun," said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, department spokesman and junk-food-dispenser-in-chief. "It's meant to be ironic. The idea of police passing out Doritos at a festival that celebrates pot, we're sure, is going to generate some buzz."

The idea isn't just to satisfy some munchies. The department has affixed labels to 1,000 bags of Doritos urging people to check out a question-and-answer post on its website, titled "Marijwhatnow? A Guide to Legal Marijuana Use In Seattle." It explains some of the nuances of Washington's law: that adults can possess up to an ounce but can't sell it or give it away, that driving under the influence of pot is illegal, and that — festivals aside — public use is illegal.

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that medical marijuana has helped thousands of patients that suffer from chronic medical ailments, whether you’re talking about management of chronic pain, nausea or GI problems or enhancement of appetite.

Additionally, there seems to be data suggesting that in certain neurological diseases, some of the chemical properties of marijuana might also be beneficial. Such is the case with Vivian Wilson, 2, whose father is urging New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to pass a law making it easier for children to obtain medical marijuana.

Wilson suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a severe, difficult-to-control epileptic condition. Her father, Brian, has said that ingestible extracts of certain strains of marijuana high in a compound known as CBD and low in THC, the chemical that gets pot users high, have reportedly helped children with Wilson’s condition.

Now, Gov. Christie has said he will decide by Friday whether to sign the bill into law.